The 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi on October 2 will usher in a new system of public administration in Andhra Pradesh with the launch of village and ward secretariats.
Jagan Reddy, whose government recruited 1.26 lakh people for the posts in village and ward secretariats, on Monday handed over appointment letters to some of the selected candidates in Vijayawada.
Fulfilling another major public promise, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is all set to launch the new system aimed at providing services to people in rural and urban areas in a corruption-free and hassle-free manner. A total of 11,158 village secretariats will come into existence across the state on October 2. Similarly 3,809 ward secretariats will start functioning in 110 municipalities.
The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) government says the system will deliver transparent, accountable and corruption-free services to people and become a role model for the entire country. Jagan Mohan Reddy said people in villages were looking for corruption-free delivery of services. He asked the selected candidates to bear in mind that they are doing this job to serve the people.
He said the village secretariats would provide over 500 services from January next year, and ensure that the benefits of government schemes reach the eligible within 72 hours of their request. Jagan had promised to introduce the village secretariat system when people, during his 3,648 km padyatra across the state, brought to his notice the problems faced by them in drawing pensions, getting ration, caste and other certificates and availing other services.
To ensure speedy governance and fixing the issues reported by common citizens, the village secretariats will be provided with infrastructure facilities including computers, printers, scanners, UPS with a two hour backup, lamination machines, mobile phones, biometric devices, and fingerprint and iris recognition devices. Internet connection will be provided by landline phone.
Jagan claimed that his government created a new record by providing four lakh jobs in four months. He said 10-12 new jobs were provided to each village through the village secretariats. Officials said 19.56 lakh candidates had appeared in the exams conducted early this month for 1,26,728 posts - 95,088 rural and 31,640 urban posts. The results were declared last week. The government claims this to be the single biggest initiative of mass recruitment.
The government has also appointed nearly 2.8 lakh village and ward volunteers. The volunteers will be the face of governance and will strengthen the public delivery system of welfare schemes, officials said. Jagan said providing jobs to so many people in such a short time in a transparent manner is the biggest achievement of the government. He claimed that providing permanent employment to nearly 1.40 lakh is a new record. He also said that exams will be conducted in January every year to fill the vacancies in all government departments.
The YSRCP government clarified that the volunteers will not be like 'Janmaboomi' committees of the previous Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government. It alleged that 'Janmabhoomi' committees were acting as decision-making bodies and were interacting with people on party lines, showing discrimination and indulging in corruption.
"Village volunteers are dedicated people who will be voluntarily working with service motive and are not the sanctioning authority but are only part of the delivery mechanism of welfare schemes of the government," the government said. Every village volunteer will service 50 houses in rural areas and every ward volunteer will take care of 100 houses in urban areas.
"The volunteers will deliver the monthly ration to the doorsteps of the beneficiary as many had complained that they were losing one day's wage if they were to stand in the queue at ration shops to get their monthly quota and the quality of rice."
The Chief Minister announced that every village volunteer will be provided a smart phone from December to enable them to discharge their duties.